Jake had never wanted to leave a dungeon faster as he promptly exited the Endless Journey before the Forsaken Dragonkin could properly understand what Jake had just said. He kind of snickered to himself as the chamber got replaced with a white void similar to the ones he had seen before fully leaving other Challenge Dungeons.
Speaking of the Challenge Dungeon… Jake had done pretty well, hadn’t he? While he was doing the Endless Journey, Jake honestly had a hard time getting a feelin...
2024-02-15 11:38:15 +0000 UTC
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The gods watched the screen as Jake just relaxed on the floor while yawning lazily. In space, the Forsaken Dragonkin was rampaging, truly motivated by a promise of a potential Path to godhood. No one in the room really said anything as they simply observed events unfold until, finally, Minaga chimed up.
“So… another note in the development log?”
“Yes,” the Wyrmgod simply responded.
“Alrighty then,” Minaga smiled, clearly not upset with the situation. Looking at...
2024-02-14 11:20:50 +0000 UTC
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Jake stared at the Forsaken Dragonkin as he, more than anything, just wanted to yell, “What the fuck did you just say to me?” but he managed to hold himself back. However, his face did reveal his distaste for the question, showing that he should have maybe worn his mask for this entire thing.
“Oh? Did the question offend you?” the dragonkin asked in an amused tone.
“I merely fail to see how my death would change anything,” Jake answered.
“It would convince me t...
2024-02-13 11:08:10 +0000 UTC
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Maybe it was Jake’s fault for expecting too much, but he had very much assumed he would meet some kind of opposition during all his travels. He had set out to find people to decipher the runes, but on the way to the first one, he didn’t get intercepted by a single enemy. Were there times when something looking like an ambush was hidden in the most obvious flight path? Yes, but Jake had just easily avoided that or kept his stealth skill active to pass by unnoticed.
After his visit to...
2024-02-12 11:32:49 +0000 UTC
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Jake sighed as the entire trial was rapidly coming down on his head. Usually, a collapsing cave wouldn’t really be a problem, and it would, at most, annoyingly trap him for a while, but this place was a bit different. It was clearly rigged to explode and kill whoever was inside, and releasing a Pulse, Jake saw that the pathways he had taken to enter the chamber were rapidly collapsing. If he really hurried, there was a chance he could still make it out the way he came, though it would be fa...
2024-02-09 11:57:59 +0000 UTC
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So… dragons. Dragons were scary, and in all honesty, there was no way in fucking hell Jake was going to be dealing with one. Any true dragon was B-grade and a high-tier variant, meaning even the weakest of them could blast Jake to pieces without him ever really standing a chance.
This begged the question… with dragons suddenly returning, what the hell was Jake to do? Well, he learned that only half an hour after the guild employee had gone to fetch him. The dwarven woman had led Jak...
2024-02-08 12:03:16 +0000 UTC
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Considering there was only a handful of S-grades in the entire world, it didn’t take long for the people present to realize who the man Jake had arrived with was. His overwhelming aura suppressed every single one of them, his power simply at a whole other level, even compared to the peak A-grade Lord Protector.
”Ge… General…” the Lord Protector stuttered as the Founder’s form also changed. Jake already knew he had transformed his body, so it didn’t really come as a surpris...
2024-02-07 11:30:35 +0000 UTC
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Jake wondered what all the nobles he had been working with were thinking when they saw Jake walk down the stairs. He had just failed all of their Side Jobs, though they clearly didn’t know this. These jobs had all been about exposing other factions than themselves and had been mutually exclusive, as each required him to betray everyone else… of course, Jake didn’t view anything he had done as a betrayal as he never held any loyalty in the first place.
The Duke of Flames had wanted...
2024-02-06 12:02:51 +0000 UTC
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Jake, of course, knew about Shroud of the Primordial. He used it all the time during this Challenge Dungeon to block so people couldn’t tell when he was lying while manipulating it, so it didn’t block whatever truth-telling ability was being used when he told the truth. He didn’t know how to make Shroud display his lies as true answers, only to block it from giving any response at all… but he did have a feeling this was something he could learn to make the skill do at some future time...
2024-02-05 11:46:16 +0000 UTC
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The lines were drawn as the palace in the Human Kingdom capital rapidly filled up. The three Dukes would be in attendance, and not just with projections either, but their real selves. Borderline every noble of any influence had shown up, and when the king also entered along with his wife – a mid-tier A-grade – things got even more intense. Especially when the old man following behind the two of them was seen. He was slightly hunched over, and had a frizzled beard and no hair, with an over...
2024-02-02 11:54:00 +0000 UTC
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”You two had a lot of fun with this one, huh?” the Viper commented as he watched Jake perform Courier Job after Courier Job. Despite it not being outright confirmed yet, he had the strong impression that both Minaga and the Wyrmgod had been heavily involved with this particular Challenge Dungeon.
”Fun? Do you have any idea how much work it was?” Minaga said with a sigh. ”Out of every Challenge Dungeon, this one took by far the longest. Well, besides the Test of Character, but ...
2024-02-01 11:40:06 +0000 UTC
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Mission: Mysterious Organization Double-Agent Infiltration went much more smoothly than Jake had expected. After he left the Baron’s place, Jake went and just relaxed in the city for a day as he sat down and did a bit more crafting. After this day, he left the city again, still disguised as a scalekin.
Once a good distance away, and when he was sure no one was watching, he changed himself back to looking like – and Identifying as – a human before flying back toward the city with h...
2024-01-31 11:47:58 +0000 UTC
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Jake definitely felt like he had unlocked some secret quest chain or something. Delivering to a B-grade through a Special Courier Job this early on was already a pretty big achievement, but now even an A-grade had appeared before him. Plus, because Jake did know a bit about the world he found himself in, he understood how important someone like a Duke was.
The specific country Jake found himself in had only three total dukes and one king. All the dukes and the king were A-grade, with th...
2024-01-30 11:45:23 +0000 UTC
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After recovering from using Arcane Awakening, Jake didn’t continue his journey right away. Instead, he took a small break inside the miniature forest to prepare some things. During the House of the Architect, he had learned to craft both a better poison and to make acid, but after exiting, he had made neither.
Both of those would honestly have been useful in the last fight, especially the acid. If Jake had a good amount, he could have tossed it on the cube or even put some of it into ...
2024-01-29 11:39:17 +0000 UTC
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The scalekin sure hadn’t been the most talkative, so Jake hoped to get some information out of the bearded man who originally greeted him. He and all his friends were trying to run away right now after the mage had died, knowing that they didn’t stand a chance even if they got involved.
Power differences, especially at higher grades, weren’t just a simple math equation. Two people with half of Jake’s stats wouldn’t be equal to one Jake, and even if a few hundred of them came a...
2024-01-26 11:50:47 +0000 UTC
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Jake didn’t relax for even a moment as he immediately activated Arcane Awakening at its stable 30%. A level 311 humanoid was simply not anyone he could take lightly, and if he let his guard down, things could quickly get hairy.
In response, the bearded man and all of the lower-leveled people did something surprising. Rather than attack, they all turned on their tails and backed away at impressive speeds as the scalekin was the only one who slowly floated toward Jake.
At leas...
2024-01-25 11:54:34 +0000 UTC
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Jake felt like perhaps this would be the first ”real” job. It gave him a different feeling compared to all the ones he had done prior, and after accepting it, he was more sure than ever these Special Courier Jobs were a bit like those special fights in the Colosseum. In more ways than one.
Based on the words of the Guild attendant, Jake suspected that all of these Special Courier Jobs were linked. A part of a longer quest chain of sorts. He believed he had only been offered this job...
2024-01-24 11:46:40 +0000 UTC
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The Courier Dungeon, as Jake had dubbed it, had an extremely simplified and straightforward societal structure. Everything was split into tiers, it seemed, with even the cities being very distinctly separated. The first city Jake arrived in was a smallest-sized city, which meant it had below a certain population threshold. Half a million based on what Jake gathered.
In the hierarchy of cities just ranked above the smallest-sized cities, one found the small-sized ones, which had between ...
2024-01-23 11:55:28 +0000 UTC
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Actual traveling.
Who would have thought that the job as a Courier would include traveling? Sure had Jake fooled after he only ran around a city for several days. Sure, it hadn’t been the worst, and there was plenty of diversity thrown in there to make it entertaining.
Nevertheless, Jake was glad that phase of the Challenge Dungeon was over as he proceeded with Courier Job 20. It wasn’t like he had to go far, but it did feel good to finally be out in the open. He had traveled ...
2024-01-22 11:58:58 +0000 UTC
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It turned out that poor old Polsted had been held up at home by a fourth accomplice of the people trying to rob his store. Everything had been part of some big conspiracy where the young man had been a new employee who was just there to scope out the place, and after learning where the jeweler lived, they followed him home one day and held him at swordpoint. From there, they would spend the next day robbing the store, and the reason the young man had been the only one in the store was to insp...
2024-01-19 11:44:12 +0000 UTC
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Delivery jobs were definitely one of the most vital functions of modern society. Before the system, who could even live without getting stuff delivered to their house within a day of ordering it online? It was truly an impossibility, and the hard-working delivery workers were the ones who made that a reality.
Jake had spent a while in university working as a delivery driver to make some money and let’s just say he didn’t particularly enjoy the job. True, there was something zen and ...
2024-01-18 11:55:40 +0000 UTC
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Nevermore shook her head after she threw the young human out of the Challenge Dungeon. The instance of the dungeon he had been occupying was already dematerializing and getting recycled, with the only thing remaining the ten Creations he had submitted and his new personal domain.
Of the Creations, the arcane marble was by far the most interesting and would be a great item to absorb for the World Wonder. She also had plenty of thoughts on the one who had submitted it and his… peculiar ...
2024-01-17 11:53:26 +0000 UTC
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Jake could admit he had not been looking forward to this part. He had already talked a bit with Nevermore about his feelings of inadequacy as a teacher, but they had never really discussed the outcome of Jake’s teachings. Never talked about how “good” of a submission Temlat’s Path was… and, by extension, how well what Jake had taught was viewed. Assuming one could even call what Jake had done teaching.
“We have discussed your feelings on the matter before, but be aware that ...
2024-01-16 12:00:40 +0000 UTC
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”So, how exactly does this evaluation work? I would assume all of the submissions have already been evaluated upon submission,” Jake asked. “And even if they hadn’t, I doubt doing so would take you much time.”
“Indeed, each evaluation has already been completed. However, this final part is a bit different. This evaluation is not for anyone’s benefit, but your own,” the Architect answered. “Part of the purpose of this Challenge Dungeon is to benefit you, after all. Tell...
2024-01-15 11:26:55 +0000 UTC
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Submitting the acid was uneventful, which shouldn’t really surprise anyone, considering Jake and Nevermore had spoken only a few days prior.
By now, Jake just wanted to be done with the Challenge Dungeon and move on to the next. He didn’t like spending too much time in the laboratory as he had caught himself with less-than-pleasant thoughts more than once. Especially after one of his more focused crafting attempts, Jake exited it excitedly, and as he looked at his concoction, he bri...
2024-01-12 11:29:54 +0000 UTC
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Jake floated silently in the air as the aura of Temlat slowly faded away. With his death, the curse and plague both disappeared, curing all those who had been infected nearly instantly. Looking down at Eternal Hunger, he wondered if anything had changed but found no obvious changes to the weapon, at least not besides its clear satisfaction with having consumed another Sin Curse to fuel itself. He did feel that the Records of another Sin Curse had slightly affected it, but… Temlat had simply...
2024-01-11 11:45:53 +0000 UTC
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Temlat undoubtedly had one person he hated more than anyone. An individual that represented everything he despised above all else. Despised how she was just sitting up on her floating island, staring down with mockery at the average folk beneath. She had been such a shitty person Temlat had even awakened his innate curse affinity due to how much he hated her.
This hate was felt throughout a huge part of the planet as Temlat descended upon the cloud island. The others infected by the cur...
2024-01-10 11:49:18 +0000 UTC
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The curse energy within the underground room kept increasing with every passing second. The former freedom fighters stood catatonically as their bodies still burned, and Jake felt that their souls had already mostly been extinguished. They were being reduced to nothing more than the hatred within their hearts.
Plague energy also slowly began to emerge, infecting the mostly dead people. Jake realized now it had come from the dagger Temlat had used to stab himself with. The half-elf had c...
2024-01-09 11:36:37 +0000 UTC
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Temlat hadn’t been home ever since the day Jake fetched him from the dystopian futuristic world he came from. He hadn’t even asked to go once. Instead, he had stuck primarily to the centaur world and the jungle world for all his training sessions.
His reasoning was that he didn’t want to risk losing control of his emotions. Also, he was certain he was still wanted in his homeworld after having escaped from that noble woman on the floating island. Jake had briefly asked Temlat if h...
2024-01-08 11:57:49 +0000 UTC
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Poison came in many shapes and forms. Jake usually relied on the classic poison in liquid form that he coated his weapons with, but powdered poison was just as normal. Powder had the great properties of being dissolved in water or even burned to create a mist or smoke with toxic properties. If this powder was dissolved in purified water, one could even have a do-it-yourself poison kit.
Jake felt like he could quite easily make a powder, and this was one of the things he considered as hi...
2024-01-05 11:57:15 +0000 UTC
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